Policies and practices of external evaluation of schools: spaces for teacher collaboration?

Abstract

Teaching has traditionally been a solitary profession. However, both because of the growing awareness of the complexity of teaching and the emergence of a notion of curriculum based on transversal competences, teachers’ collaborative work is currently the focus of increased attention and research. Teacher collaboration has a paradoxical status in schools, as desired by educational policies and by teachers’ and schools’ discourses, but there is little evidence of authentic teacher collaboration practices. The present article intends to identify how teacher collaboration is at stake in schools. The perspective considered here is that of the frame of reference and reports of the third cycle of External Evaluation of Schools, conducted by the General Inspectorate of Education and Science in Portugal. The study uses document analysis as a data-gathering technique and content analysis for data analysis. The results point to the transversal valuing of teacher collaborative work in order to promote the improvement of teachers’ practices related to supervision.